Stetson University, Florida’s first private university, has set the standard for excellence in a variety of ways since 1883.

FIRST IN ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

• Stetson University was the first private university in Florida to be granted a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious undergraduate honors organization. Phi Beta Kappa to date has recognized a selective group of only 276 institutions of higher learning that have achieved the highest standards of liberal arts education.
  
  
• Stetson’s College of Law was the first in Florida. It also is the first and only law school to win all five national mock trial team competitions in one academic year.
  
  
• The College of Law was the first in Florida to admit women. The first woman laywer in Florida to earn a law degree graduated from Stetson College of Law in 1908.
  
  
• The School of Business Administration was the first in Florida.
  
  
• The School of Music was the first in Florida.
  
  
• Stetson’s Elementary and Secondary Education Programs were the first in Florida. Today they have nearly a 100 percent placement rate.
  
  
• Stetson’s Geography Program was the first in Florida. Our Gillespie Museum holds the South’s most extensive private mineral collection, a resource for the community and for student research.
  
• Stetson is home to the first college-level Model Senate program.
  
  
• Stover Theatre, whose doors opened in November 1930, houses the first collegiate theatrical company in Florida.
  
  
• The Digital Arts Program is the first in the South to combine music, the visual arts, and computer science.
  
  
• Started in 1958, Stetson’s Russian Studies major was among the first undergraduate programs of its kind in the nation.
  
  
• The new Stetson University Center at Celebration, opened in September 2001, is Osceola County’s first university campus.

FIRST IN DIVERSITY

• Stetson University was the first private university in Florida to enroll African-American students. Today, Stetson is committed to an energetic university-wide diversity initiative and welcomes an increasingly diverse faculty and student body.

FIRST IN CONSERVATION

• Stetson was the first educational institution to receive a Year 2000 Sustainable Florida Award honoring our implementation efforts and community involvement in environmental issues such as recycling and energy conservation.
  
  
• Stetson University's Eugene M. and Christine Lynn Business Center was the first educational building in Florida to be certified a green building by the U.S. Green Building Council under its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System^TM.  The designation was awarded in 2003.

FIRST IN ATHLETICS

• Stetson played the first intercollegiate basketball games (both men’s and women’s), the first intercollegiate baseball game, and the first intercollegiate football game in Florida. Stetson’s men’s basketball team was the first in Florida to earn 1,000 victories.

FIRST IN STUDENT ACTIVITIES

• Stetson is home to the first college newspaper in Florida, The Stetson Reporter, founded in 1887.